


Falling Faster

by Writing_Wren



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Realising Feelings, SuperCat Slam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 06:16:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8152013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writing_Wren/pseuds/Writing_Wren
Summary: Sometimes it just takes a little time with the right person to turn a bad day into a great one.





	

Kara was not having a good day. From the moment she left her apartment her day had sucked. Like super-sucked. 

 

First, Maxwell Lord had “accidentally” attempted to blow her up during her morning patrol. He had made another drone. One to patrol the city to lookout for possible alien attacks from the sky. It was to act as a first line of defence by locking onto and exploding near any potential threats. Naturally he had engineered it to let out a burst of kryptonite dust when it exploded, because who really knew if all of the Fort Rozz kryptonians had actually been under Non's command and had went into stasis as ordered during Myriad? 

 

As Max’s plans went it was rather sloppy, and his attempts at justification weren't much better. The only things that had kept Alex from dragging him into the DEO were the last lingering feelings of gratitude for his help during Myriad, and the fact that POTUS was in town. Both Hank and Lucy had been pretty adamant about not abducting a renowned billionaire right before the president was set to inspect their operation.

Which left Kara feeling frustrated, and gave her the sensation of waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was also the small issue of the burning sensation in her chest from inhaling kryptonite dust.

 

Alex assured her, after a non-optional chest x-ray and MRI, that the dust would cause no lasting damage. According to Alex what she was feeling was the equivalent of a mild chest infection for a human. Something that should wear off in a day or two depending on how much sun she got. 

 

Not a great way to start the day but after everything she had faced it wasn’t that big of a deal. 

 

Then she went into work. Almost a full hour late. 

 

Snapper was not happy. Not for the first time since her promotion did Kara realise just how lenient Cat had been about her odd hours and disappearances. He was not impressed by her excuses of traffic being held up by the mysterious midair explosion, but fortunately for Kara said explosion meant he had other priorities. 

 

Stopping by James’ office was supposed to be where her day turned around for the better. Instead she arrived just in time to witness another “bro” hug between James and Clark, who was visiting for the week. It wasn’t the first or even fifth time she’d seen them hug like this in the past few days. The hugs that would last just a little too long and end with them both springing apart like they’d been burned whenever they noticed her. 

 

That time was no exception. She was spared listening to whatever harried excuse they had by the sounds of sirens two blocks over. Snapper had already disappeared into an editorial meeting so Kara didn’t hesitate to fly off muttering to Clark that she had this one before she sped off. 

 

Following the sirens led Kara to a fire in the old warehouse district. The fire was contained to just the one warehouse, the workers almost completely cleared away before she even arrived. It finally felt like she was catching a break. Until the warehouse began to collapse on the last worker and firefighter pair to be evacuating the building. Kara practically threw the pair to safety, just as a burning chunk of debris landed on her. Pushing her to the ground. Pinning her legs. 

 

The first thing Kara noticed was the weight on her legs. Heavy in a way things so rarely were for her on Earth. The second thing was the heat. The feeling as if her boots were about to melt into the skin of her calves a split second before she wrenched her legs out under what used to be part of a support beam. 

 

Sheer determination was the only reason she managed to use her freeze breath to get the worst of the blaze under control before allowing the fire department to take care of the rest. The fire chief cracked a joke about how she was finally letting them earn their paycheck, but she could see in his eyes he could tell something was off and was offering her an out.

 

She took it gratefully. Something was off. Her powers were as burnt out as the warehouse.

 

Thinking back on it she should have known it was going to happen. She hadn’t really had much of a break during all of the post Myriad clean up, and the Kryptonite still making her chest ache hardly helped. Still, it was another item on the list of things making her day less than good. 

 

Using all of the blending in skills she had developed during her years at Midvale High, Kara managed to sneak away while the focus was still mostly on the warehouse. Her next challenge was convincing Alex to take her home instead of the DEO. Liberal use of pouting and puppy dog eyes only got her so far. It wasn’t until she promised they could do ice cream and Netflix that evening that Alex relented. 

 

A cold shower, (because apparently she had some first degree burns on her calves that disagreed with hot water), and a change of clothes later, Kara returned to Catco. The bus ride there was probably the least stressful part of her day. Rather than go straight to her office she decided to go tell Winn and James about her power out. She refused to call it a solar flare. 

 

When she had arrived in the bullpen just in time to see Cat’s latest assistant flee from the Cat’s office crying she almost felt like running after them. Instead she made the mistake of making eye contact with Cat through the glass walls. Cat shouted a summons, using her real name at least, and Kara went to her, a stream of Kryptonian curse words running through her mind at her run of bad luck. 

 

Just like that Kara was Cat’s assistant again. At least until HR could find another replacement tomorrow. After the day she’d been having the familiar dance of fetching coffee and answering phones turned out to be more calming than stressful. If Cat didn’t keep calling her Kara, and prompting her to speak her mind whenever she noticed Kara frown at her notes or her schedule then Kara would almost believe everything was exactly the same as before she had been promoted. 

 

But Cat did. And it was nice. It was closer to the relationship Kara shared with her as Supergirl than it was their old boss and assistant dynamic. Somehow what she had thought was going to feel like a temporary demotion instead felt like she was just helping out a friend. It was odd to feel as if she might actually be friends with Cat while not wearing her super suit but it also felt natural. 

 

Things had been changing between them ever since Kara’s promotion. Little things. Like Cat determinedly using her name even when she was clearly annoyed. Or Kara marching into Cat’s office and putting either a latte or a glass of M&M’s on her desk whenever Cat has been particularly harsh on one of her revolving door assistants. Neither of them talk about it and no one around the office has been brave enough to question her about it, never mind question Cat. 

 

Maybe it was the culmination of these little things that led to Kara’s current position. Sitting sideways on one of the chairs on Cat’s balcony as she proof reads an email. Cat sitting with her feet curled under her on the chair opposite, checking Catco social media. 

 

“Well, well, we’re only just coming up on lunch and the city appears to have already exhausted its superhero for the day,” Cat says, not looking up from her screen. Kara glances up at her for just a second taking in Cat’s nonchalant posture before she forces her eyes back to the email. 

 

It’s another change between them. Perhaps the biggest and the one they put the most effort into not talking about. The way they both know that Cat knows who she really is. The way they talk as if Supergirl is another person, Kara answering hidden questions by pretending she’s talking about how she’d imagine being Supergirl must be like. The conversations are never about things Cat would publish. More often than not their Cat asking if she’s ok after a fight.

 

“Almost getting blown out of the sky and then helping out with a warehouse fire sounds like it could be pretty exhausting” Kara says, offering a small shrug. 

 

“She’s done far more strenuous things and then still made flashy exits,” Cat says her eyes flickering up this time, not quite able to hide her concern. 

 

“She makes flashy exits?” Kara keeps her tone light, trying to deflect, which Cat sees straight through. 

 

“Oh you know the whole parting comment, and dramatically flying off thing she does.” Cat wiggles her fingers dismissively. “But this time she might as well have evaporated, she didn’t even finish putting out the fire.”

 

“Evaporated? Not go up in smoke?” Cat narrows her eyes. Kara sighs. “Well she has been working non stop since Myriad, and the fire brigade clearly had things under control or she would have called her cousin. Or at least I would have if I were her and couldn’t stop a fire myself. Maybe she just needs a day or two to get back into shape.” 

 

“Supergirl needs a weekend off?” Cat asks, her tone just a little too hard to pass for teasing. “I wasn’t aware that was a luxury superheroes took.” 

 

“Even superheroes have to have their limits,” Kara says, her tone admonishing, even as her posture verges on defensive. She watches Cat’s own posture soften slightly. 

 

“Is it just overexertion or has one of her latest escapades been more dangerous than they’ve appeared, do you think?” 

 

“One of the pictures from this morning's explosion looked like there was some green mist in the flames.” It’s a lie and they both know it. The best image anyone had found, the one that’s been attached to all of the articles and news reports for the past few hours, was the reflected flare of the explosion in a skyscrapers window as caught by another building's security camera. “Breathing that in probably didn’t help with any exhaustion she was already feeling.” 

 

It’s a stretch of credulity even by their standards. Kara Danvers isn’t supposed to be aware of Kryptonite, so green dust that no one else has mentioned seeing shouldn’t mean anything to her. 

 

“Breathing in toxic material isn’t something to be taken lightly, but she still went to that warehouse fire,” Cat says. Kara can’t tell if she sounds more angry or worried. A quick glance at white knuckles holding her tablet do nothing to solve the mystery. 

 

“Maybe putting out the fire seemed like her better option at the time” Kara says, and once again she’s pushing the envelope. They might play around discussing how Supergirl feels after one of her exploits. They never talk about her mindset going into something. It brings them too close to talking about Kara’s actual life. Too close to needing to acknowledge how much things have changed. After a morning like hers Kara doesn’t quite have the energy to play it safe.

 

“Besides it wasn’t that big of a fire,” she adds hastily. It’s an attempt to give Cat a way back from the dangerous territory she had steered them into. 

 

“What could possibly make running into a burning building preferable?” 

 

Of course Cat didn’t back down, Kara thinks, she’s probably sick of pretending she doesn’t know. Kara closes her eyes, lets her head fall back, and lets out a slow breath through her nose. Without looking she reaches out and puts her tablet on the small table between them.

 

“Maybe watching her boyfriend and her cousin pretend they aren’t totally into each other?” She poses it as a question but the reality is it’s a statement. A firm step away from what it is reasonable for her to imagine Supergirl’s life might be like, and towards what her life really is like. 

 

“And here I thought our boy in blue had a thing for Lois Lane,” Cat says, and Kara hears her putting her own tablet down too. They’re tip toeing on the edge. Everything they’ve said can still be brushed off as imagination. But, Kara is tired. And she is sore. And Cat has, against all odds, become her friend.

 

“He does,” Kara says, opening her eyes and turning to face Cat. “But whenever James is around they just seem to fall into each other.”

 

It’s not the most explicit statement but it pushes them over the line. 

 

“And what does Lane think of that?” Cat asks, as if they hadn’t just passed into the realm of no return. 

 

“She just rolls with it,” Kara exclaims, turning herself into a regular sitting position. “And not in a ‘he always comes back to me’ way. It’s more like ‘the more the merrier’ kind of way.” 

 

“Typical Lois, of course she’s greedy enough to want both.” Kara just shakes her head. In the two and a bit years that she’s known Cat, she’s never once come close to finding out where her animosity towards Lois comes from. “But what about you? What do you think of it?” 

 

“I think my cousin goes back to Metropolis at the end of the week, so why make a fuss?” 

 

Cat doesn’t even say anything. She just stares at her and Kara crumples in on herself.

 

“I know, okay? I know he’s basically projecting his feelings for Clark on me, and I know I’m just settling, but James is a good guy. He’s smart, and he’s sweet, and funny? Besides where else am I going to find someone who is so understanding about the whole ‘I’m an alien superhero’ thing?” 

 

She’s rambling. There is hand waving happening. She can feel the self conscious blush creeping up her neck as Cat continues to stare. Finally Cat moves and it prompts her mouth, which has taken on a mind of it’s own talking about how easy being with James was, and how normal it made her feel, to stop. Cat walks around the small table between them and sits herself down next to Kara, all without breaking eye contact. 

 

The intensity in her gaze reminds Kara of another time on this balcony. When their conversation had been almost as emotional, and Cat had surged into her personal space so quickly, that for just a split second Kara had been sure the other woman would kiss her. 

 

“Normal too subjective and overrated a goal to aim for in life, and you deserve better than to settle for being a stand in for your cousin.” Cat speaks slowly and clearly. Her tone is the same one she used when she gave Kara her pep talk during Myriad. The night they’d hugged. 

 

She remembers how natural the embrace had felt. How Cat had fit against her. How her hand had gripped Kara’s cape. How hard it had been to let go. 

 

She wonders if they would have sprung apart the way Clark and James always seemed to when they were seen, had someone else joined them. 

 

“You don’t really think James is the only person in your life who is understanding about the whole ‘you’re an alien superhero’ thing do you?” 

 

The words come out at barely a whisper but with Cat this close she doesn’t even need to rely on her enhanced hearing to pick them up. Because by Rao is she close. Close enough that their shoulders brush together and their noses almost do too. 

 

“No, I suppose I don’t,” Kara says. Her voice is hoarse and she thinks it has less to do with the kryptonite in her lungs and more to do with the sudden onset of butterflies trying to create a hurricane in her stomach. 

 

“You said it’s like they fall into one another,” Cat says, her fingers slowly entwining with Kara’s between their bodies. “Do you think it feels anything like this?” 

 

Kara doesn’t answer. She can’t. The butterflies in her stomach have succeeded in making their hurricane. Her head is spinning with the scent of Cat’s perfume. Cat’s fingers interlocked with hers are sending sparks shooting up her arm. And all of the little things that have been changing between them since Myriad, and even before it, since she became Supergirl, all of them are playing behind her eyes. Her heart pounds in her chest. 

 

Except for the first time in a long time she isn’t on this balcony as Supergirl. She’s about as far from being Supergirl right now as she can get. And Cat is still right there. 

 

“I think it does” she says finally. “And I think we’ve been falling for a long time.” 

 

Cat lets out a low hum of agreement. Then she leans in and presses her lips against Kara’s. 

 

It’s not a wapow kind of moment. It’s like the hug. Natural. Cat’s lips fit perfectly against Kara’s own. Her hand squeezes Kara’s gently. She doesn’t want it to end. Which of course means it has to. However reluctant she is, she pulls away.

 

“I need to talk to James.” 

 

“I understand.” 

 

“Then I want to do that again.” 

 

“You don’t want to settle?” 

 

Cat is trying to sound teasing, but Kara can hear the tension behind the words. Because they’re falling, and the thing about falling is that one day they’re going to crash. It’s not a case of if, it’s a case of when. 

 

“It’s too late to settle, I’m already in free fall.” 

 

“What happens when you land?” 

 

“I’m hoping wherever I land will be a pretty good foundation to start building from, but I can only do that if you’re with me.” This time it’s her voice that sounds uncertain.

 

“We’re falling together aren’t we?” Cat smiles. A tiny hopeful grin. Kara can’t help but beam back. 

 

“Yeah. Yeah we are.”

 

“Then go talk to James.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of an abrupt way to end a chapter I know, and I'm sorry but, I don't know what the hell happened. First I was writing with a solid idea. Then life stuff happened. Like a lot of life stuff. And then I had this, which is nothing like the original idea at all, and realised I was running late with pretty much everything which means I have about 500 more words of this that will be the foundation for the next chapter which WILL be the only chapter to added and will hopefully allow me to figure out where the plan went off the rails and tie the story up neatly. 
> 
> ~EDIT~ Second chapter has sadly been cancelled because life happened and it got eaten by the void while I wasn't looking. I'm very sorry to anyone who was looking forward to another chapter, but it's just not happening.


End file.
